Music reproduction, whether in the home or in large public
venues, is plagued by the acoustic effects of the physical space (room) in which
it takes place. Reflections and standing waves distort the accuracy of the
sound at the listening position from that initially produced by the
loudspeakers.Control and minimization of room effects is one of the
critical frontiers of music reproduction. Delivering the soundwave faithfully to
the listener's ears in a typical listening environment is the objective of
this development. The ideal loudspeaker would deliver consistent, accurate, high
quality sound to any point in the listening space. Newform's Coaxial
Ribbon LineSource delivers consistent, high quality sound to a larger portion of
the listening space than has been possible before.

This approach is inherently free from the flaws of
conventional dome based point source loudspeakers and incorporates features
which allow an ideal (ideal = the best practically achievable, but almost
certainly not perfect) installation to be quickly achieved in many different
rooms for many different listeners.

The traditional loudspeaker consists of a larger cone
diaphragm bass transducer possibly a cone or dome midrange and a cone or dome
high frequency tweeter. This configuration has a number of significant
acoustic drawbacks in its ability to deliver the soundwave, that the separate
drivers initially create faithfully, through the acoustic space to the
listener's ear. The overlapping hemispherical dispersion patterns of
these dome/box loudspeakers using single, small round diaphragms of different
sizes for different frequencies staggered on a flat baffle assures cancellation
patterns in many directions from the baffle. It also assures that large
numbers of room resonances are excited and that reflected sound arrives at the
listener's ear from many different sources at different times degrading the
integrity of the original wave created at the diaphragms.

A line source loudspeaker is one with multiple identical
drivers arranged vertically in a line or one vertical long driver. The
resultant long, narrow diaphragm creates a pattern of dispersion radically
different from that of a round diaphragm. Instead of being hemispheric,
the dispersion pattern of a line source radiator is resembles a column or
cylinder. Round and broad but with limited and well defined height.

A long narrow driver such as a Ribbon or thin electrostatic
transducer also produces a pattern of dispersion that effectively extends the "near field" response,
i.e. the response of the loudspeaker before it is
affected by interaction with the room, further into the listening area.
The distance the near field effect is projected depends on the length of the
effective diaphragm and the frequency it is producing.

Line source loudspeakers (classic electrostatic and Ribbon
speakers) have much more controlled vertical dispersion and therefore excite
fewer detrimental room interactions but as previously implemented have
introduced several other deficiencies of their own. These deficiencies
stem from the alignment on the same plane of the drivers in two or more parallel
vertical lines. By placing radiating surfaces beside each other, the waves
created will arrive at different horizontal points in the room at slightly
different times causing many amplitude and phase anomalies (comb filtering)
which degrade the perceived accuracy of the music.

Only in one very narrow area are these anomalies minimized
giving rise to the term "head-in-a-vice sweet spot". Slight movement
of the listening head produces distinctly different acoustical performance.
This also precludes more than one listener from enjoying ideal response.

The traditional parallel line source configuration gives rise
to the same kind of interference in the horizontal plane that is inherent with
conventional dome/cone speakers in the vertical plane.

Besides phase differentials, other anomalies include baffle
bounce and diffraction. Baffle bounce occurs when a wave from a driver
(typically high frequency) radiates to the side of the driver and "bounces"
off of the baffle or the diaphragms of other adjacent drivers. Diffraction occurs when the sound wave encounters a radical change in the baffle
surface along which it is radiating – either a corner of a loudspeaker enclosure
or the edge of a panel speaker.

For conventional or parallel line source loudspeakers, phase
coherence due to the physical offset of the drivers cannot be corrected over a
large listening area by electrical means. A coaxial line source holds much
higher potential for delivering phase and frequency response accuracy in a large
area in any listening space.

Newform's Coaxial Line source loudspeakers with a Ribbon
(long and narrow film transducer), placed directly in front of the low frequency
transducer line array, have the following advantages:

1) Extremely even horizontal dispersion

2) Very limited vertical dispersion

3) Minimized baffle bounce since the high frequency driver is
located ahead of the baffle of the midbass drivers and any high frequency sound
reaching the midbass baffle will have very low energy

4) Minimized baffle bounce since the high frequency driver is
located ahead of the baffle of the midbass drivers and any high frequency sound
reaching the midbass baffle will have very low energy

5) Diffraction will be minimized by the small size and
contoured shape of the high frequency drivers baffle (front plate).

Advantages of the Newform Research monopole Ribbon in this
application:

1) Use of a tall Ribbon driver eliminates the multitude of
vertical nodes and cancellations inherent in a line array of small high
frequency drivers for example 1" dome tweeters.

2) Use of the Newform monopole Ribbon is a necessity to avoid
excitation and distortion of the high frequency diaphragm by strong low
frequency waves created by the midbass drivers directly behind it. A
dipole Ribbon (open back) will be "fluttered" by the midbass low frequency
output.

3) Offer greater fidelity in a larger area of listening space
than any other loudspeaker configuration.

4) With the Ribbon in front, this co-axial configuration is
highly scalable – the ceiling is the limit with no acoustic downside.

The Perfect Loudspeaker?So, having minimized and eliminated some of the major
remaining deficiencies of modern loudspeakers, have we achieved perfection?
Well, not quite. The experienced loudspeaker enthusiast will point out two
issues.

Number one is the placement of the Ribbon ahead of the
mid-basses which will cause a depth phase alignment shift. This is
certainly the case but the audibility of this kind of delay is very hard to
ascertain. If a digital crossover is being used, then timing (delay) can
be adjusted by approximately 0.5 milliseconds and the drivers are then extremely
closely aligned in all three planes which has never been possible before.

The second issue is reflection off the rear of the Ribbon
towards the midbass enclosure of frequencies under 1kHz. Even in early
prototypes with our standard R-Series Ribbons, (all tests done using 7"
ScanSpeak midbasses) we did not hear any degradation we could ascribe to this
effect. One would think it would have to exist as the backs of the
R-Series are flat and about 3 1/4" wide. Perhaps since the midbass
wavelengths are well over a foot, and the back of the Ribbon is within 0.5" of
the cones, the air flows around the Ribbon body very well.

In any case, the coaxial Ribbon configuration was conceived
from the start as using a new, narrow, lower acoustic profile Ribbon.
Thus, we developed the 2" wide Oval Ribbon to be used in coaxial applications.
The neodymium Oval is narrower and beveled at the rear to maximize flow and
radically reduce any trace of reflection.

The Newform Research Coaxial Ribbon Line source technology
eliminates several major problems inherent in conventional loudspeakers and is a
significant step forward in the reproduction of sound in the home.

ProgressionFirst horizontally aligned LineSource – the usual problems.
Very good sound but horizontal comb filtering and high frequency bounce off the
midbass baffle were glaring when compared to existing models.

Try the Ribbons in front – Bingo! A new world of room
control! Height matters but image is too large for normal seated listening
distances. But good for small medium sized public spaces. Eight 18cm
ScanSpeaks dynamics and glorious bottom end – drove with a 600 Watt prototype Spectron digital amp – hurt hearing but uplifted soul.

A smaller soundstage champ in a two foot height. 15"
Ribbon with four 5.25" Peerless subwoofers. Potent package!

Oval formed cabinets and vastly more attractive presenters.

Coaxial Ribbon LineSource Pyramid – a favorite but
incredibly difficult for us to build. Also too heavy.

Gets out of the way of the music better than just about
anything. Better than the venerated R645v3 below – our most
popular speaker. Scan Speak Revelator 5" mid-basses in the upgrade unit
don't hurt either.

Fabulous soundstage with the Ribbon in free air but occasional
placement issues with Ribbon and mid-basses looking at completely different
reflective environment strata when placed next to a stuffed sofa for example and
Ribbon seeing the hard walls above.